Written and Directed by Potsy Ponciroli, “Old Henry” is a Western that’s about to make its debut at the Venice International Film Festival next month. The cast is pretty impressive and the film features Tim Blake Nelson (“O Brother, Where Art Thou,” “The Ballard of Buster Scruggs“), Scott Haze (“Jurassic World: Dominion,” “Venom“) Gavin Lewis (“Little Fires Everywhere”, “NCIS: Los Angeles”), Trace Adkins (“Deep Water Horizon,” “The Lincoln Lawyer“) and Stephen Dorff (“Blade,” “Immortals“)
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Here’s the official synopsis:
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Old Henry is an action-Western about a widowed farmer and his son who warily take in a mysterious, injured man with a satchel of cash. When a posse of men claiming to be the law come for the money, the farmer must decide whom to trust. Defending against a siege of his homestead, he reveals a talent for gunslinging that surprises everyone, calling his true identity into question.
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Here’s the director’s statement.
I’ve had a love of westerns since I was a kid. The lawlessness of the unsettled Wild West has been romanticized and fuelled stories of iconic characters for generations. Stories of heroes and villains. Good vs. evil on the most basic level. It’s a story I finally got a chance to tell with Old Henry. Old Henry is a “micro western” as Tim Blake Nelson likes to say. A small, simple tale set in an alternate timeline where an authentic, historical character plays in a fictional world. At its core, this is a story about a father and son. Nobody wants their kid to grow up and make the same mistakes they did. We shelter them and try our best to protect them from the mistakes of our past. It’s a story of redemption and forgiveness. It’s letting your child go out into the world and hoping you’ve raised them to know right from wrong. It’s all of those things… plus some badass gun fights.
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“Old Henry” debuts at the Venice Film Festival on September 7. Shout Studios is releasing the film in U.S. Cinemas on October 1. Watch the first trailer below.
